Envisaging The Sociocultural Dynamics of K-Pop:: Time/Space Hybridity, Red Queen's Race, and Cosmopolitan Striving

Korea Journal, vol. 53, no. 4 (winter 2013): 83-106.
© Korean National Commission for UNESCO, 2013
Envisaging the Sociocultural Dynamics

of K-pop: Time/Space Hybridity, Red Queen's Race,
and Cosmopolitan Striving*
Wonho JANG and Youngsun KIM
Abstract
The success of K-pop’s global drive has provoked scholarly interests from various per-
spectives and disciplines. The multidisciplinary interest in K-pop reflects the wealth
of K-pop success factors that are either exogenous (i.e., emphasizing global factors)
or endogenous (i.e., highlighting Korean factors). This article focuses on the endoge-
nous factors of K-pop’s success, given the fact that the majority of the extant studies
on K-pop analyze the impact of global factors on K-pop’s popularity in different
regions of the world. Thus, this study seeks to find if non-stereotypical Korean partic-
ularities that cannot be accounted for by exogenous explanations exist within the
K-pop industry. We posit that the Korean peculiarities in the K-pop industry can be
traced back to time/space hybridity, the “red queen’s race,” and cosmopolitan striving.
This article finds that these three specific features within modern Korean culture
explain why K-pop songs are still different from American or European pop music,
despite their similarities due to the globalization of pop music. The differences
between K-pop music and their counterparts in America and Europe are: the con-
temporaneity of the uncontemporary, the synchronized dancing to melodic music
(vis-à-vis beat music), and the multi-top dancing formation. We conclude that the
aforementioned Korean factors are responsible for these musical variations in K-pop.
Keywords: K-Pop, time/space hybridity, cosmopolitan striving, red queen’s race
* This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by
the Korean Government (NRF-2011-330-B00119).
Wonho JANG is Professor of Urban Sociology at the University of Seoul. E-mail: wjang@
uos.ac.kr.
Youngsun KIM is Research Professor of Leisure Management at Seoul School of Integrated
Sciences and Technologies. E-mail: culmn@hanmail.net.
5(Wonho JANG).indd 83 13. 12. 16. 오후 7:07

84 KOREA JOURNAL / WINTER 2013
Introduction
SM Entertainment,1 the largest K-pop music producer and trainer, origi-

nally planned its Paris concert as a one-time event but had to offer an
encore show after tenacious requests from K-pop fans in Paris who were
not able to get tickets.2 The following concert at Madison Square Garden
in New York was also reported as “the Korean invasion with New Yorkers
screaming for the new wave of pop stars.”3 The reporter added that the
audience members were mostly non-Asians.
Along with other similar sold-out shows in other parts of Europe and
North America, it is safe to argue that K-pop’s popularity has now spread
beyond Asia. The Korean media turned the Paris concerts, which drew
14,000 attendees, into a national euphoria, depicting K-pop’s recent global
success as the birth of the “Hallyu Road,” a clever reference to the ancient
Silk Road (Choi 2013). The mass media sensation was then fanned and
fueled by government attention to this new global phenomenon, which
apparently considered it a tool for boosting national pride (Ho 2012).
A myriad of scholars have advanced exogenous explanations for
K-pop’s global fandom. The dominant explanation maintains that the
spread of social network services (SNS), including YouTube, enabled
K-pop to spread beyond national barriers without heavy distribution or
promotion costs (Gilbert and Karahalios 2009; Elberse 2010). The success
of Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” for example, highlights the importance of You-
Tube in the spread of K-pop (T. Lee 2013). However, most of these studies
unevenly emphasize exogenous factors, while neglecting some, if not all,
of the crucial endogenous factors of K-pop’s differentiation from its prede-
cessors in Europe, America, and Japan. For one thing, the change of the
music production system in Korea is an important factor that could explain
1. S.M. Entertainment is an independent Korean record label, talent agency, producer, and
publisher of pop music.
2. “Extra K-pop Concert in Paris Sells Out in 10 minutes,” Korea Times, May 17, 2011;
“K-pop Heat Moves to London, Jakarta,” Korea Herald, June 20, 2011.
3. “The Korean Invasion: New Yorkers Are Screaming for the New Wave of Pop Stars,”
New York Daily News, October, 23, 2011.

Envisaging the Sociocultural Dynamic of K-pop 85
why Korean pop music, not Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, or Thai, is

the only Asian music genre that has garnered enormous global fandom all
over the world. If global, and therefore universal, factors are important in
the explanation of K-pop’s global ascendance, so are domestic factors that
can explain Korean particularities that distinguish K-pop from other sim-
ilar music genres.
We posit that the Korean peculiarities in the K-pop industry can be
traced back to what some scholars call time/space hybridity, the “red queen’s
race,”4 and cosmopolitan striving (Chang 2010; Jang 2013; Park and Abel-
mann 2004). Since Korea has developed from a traditional to a highly
industrial society in less than five decades, Korean culture maintains the
character of the traditional, modern, and postmodern (i.e., time/space
hybridity). For example, it is not uncommon to find a family in Korea
that has very patrimonial grandparents, divorced modern parents, and
bohemian sons and daughters. With Korea’s compressed modernization,
education has been considered the most credible criterion to evaluate
individual’s ability (Chang 2010), which transforms Korean people into
educational zealot. Since almost every Korean carries out educational
competition, the hyper competition turns into a race that has no clear
winners, or a “red queen’s race.” Cosmopolitan striving distinguishes
Korean culture from its Western (e.g., American, European, and Austral-
asian) counterparts. Due to Korea’s heavy dependence on the West, espe-
cially the United States, both politically and economically, during her
compressed modernization, cosmopolitan striving is a means of elevating
one’s social and economic status in Korea through excessive efforts at
learning Western languages (e.g., English) and culture (e.g., attire, eti-
quette, food, music, etc.) (Pennycook 1994; Park 2010).
At a social level, Koreans’ cosmopolitan striving is an expression of
Korean nationalism, while also reflecting their desire for economic suc-
cess despite limited resources. Considering all of these factors, our argu-
4. The concept of the “red queen’s race” is used to explain the situation where one runs
fast but remains in the same place. It first appeared in the novel, Through the Looking
Glass, a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

ment is that these cultural specificities in Korea partially, if not fully,

account for the success of K-pop on a global scale. We therefore pay
attention to the excessive learning of Western music by Korean musicians
(e.g., classic music training in Europe and America, both instrumental
and vocal; and pop music and jazz training in the United States, both
instrumental and vocal). The Korean music industry’s obsession with
Western music also runs in tandem with Korean nationalism in the sense
that Korean musicians must be able to sell their music and dance back to
the audiences of the West, from which they learn, in order to increase the
profiles of Korean musicians worldwide. It is our intention to establish the
fact that K-pop performers and producers created certain cultural speci-
ficities that can be found only in Korea in order to sell their Western
music to global audiences (i.e., without such cultural specificities, it is
impossible to sell their Korean-Western music to Western audiences).
These cultural specificities of K-pop are: the contemporaneity of the
uncontemporary, the synchronized dancing to melodic music (vis-à-vis
beat music), and the multi-top dancing formation.
To establish the linkage between Korean sociocultural factors and
K-pop cultural specificities, we first delineate specific characteristics of
K-pop music and idol groups. Second, we address the Korean cultural
specificities of time/space hybridity, the “red queen’s race,” and cosmopol-
itan striving, stressing its cultural origins and modern ramifications.
Third, we discuss how these cultural characteristics lead to the specific
features of the K-pop phenomenon.
K-pop Music and Idol Groups
Table 1 shows a partial chronology of K-pop’s globalization drive from

Asia, first to Europe and later to America (both north and south). It clearly
shows that K-pop has surpassed the Asian pop market and successfully
entered the global pop market. What is noteworthy in the K-pop chronol-
ogy is that Psy’s “Gangnam Style” genuinely attracted fans from all over the
world, including North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and

Table 1. Chronology of K-pop's Expansion from Asia to the World
Nation Date Significant Events
The first HOT (SM Entertainment) concert is held at

China Feb. 2000
Beijing Workers’ Stadium.
Japan May 2001 BOA (SM Entertainment) debuts in Japan.
Japan Apr. 2005 TVXQ (SM Entertainment) debuts in Japan.
Rain concert is held at Madison Square Garden in

USA Feb. 2006
New York.
Wonder Girls (JYP Entertainment) performs as an

Jun. – Jul. opening act for the Jonas Brothers concert tour in
USA
2009 the United States for 49 performances over 60 days
in front of an overall audience of 1.5 million.
Girls’ Generation (SM Entertainment) and KARA

Japan Aug. 2010 (DSP Media) debut and rank first on the Oricon
Chart in Japan.
SM Entertainment singers perform in Seoul, Tokyo,

Asia / North
Aug. 2010 – Shanghai, LA, New York (Madison Square Garden
America /
Oct. 2011 15,000 seats), and Paris (14,000 seats, sold out in 10
Europe
minutes).
United
Jun. 2011 SHINee performs at the Abbey Road Studio.
Kingdom
Super Junior ranks first for a record length of time

Taiwan Sep. 2011
(63 Weeks) on the KKBOX chart.
Spain Oct. 2011 JYJ concert is held in Barcelona.
“K-pop music festival” is held in Sydney (in front of

Australia Nov. 2011
an audience of 20,000).
Brazil Dec. 2011 BEAST and 4Minute concert is held in Sao Paulo.
USA Jan. 2012 SNSD appears on the David Letterman Show (CBS).
Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is registered in the Guinness

Worldwide Sep. 2012 Book of World Records for the Most “Liked” Video
in YouTube history.

Asia, whereas previous K-pop music had region- or country-specific fans.

To reiterate, both the exogenous and endogenous features of a partic-
ular music genre or a particular group of singers must be discussed in
order to explain such massive success. Many scholars have underestimat-
ed K-pop’s endogenous success factors, although they highlight the exoge-
nous ones, such as globalization, regionalization, and the influence of
J-pop and other Asian pop music on K-pop (Iwabuchi 2001; Chua 2004;
Cho 2007; Allen and Sakamoto 2006). Even when endogenous factors
were investigated, only the negative factors, such as the long-term con-
tracts which were even referred to as “slave contracts,” were unnecessarily
highlighted (Ho 2012), without addressing the validity of the harsh train-
ing system based on such long-term contracts. This system has only been
effective in Korea and is seen as largely responsible for the global success
of K-pop, particularly because such intense training and long-term con-
tracts in other countries, such as Japan, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong,
have not had any positive influence on singers in the long run. This sec-
tion, then, attempts to shed light on the endogenous elements that are
deemed germane in the formation of the global K-pop fandom. In order
to do so, the reasons for K-pop’s success should first be discussed before
examining the negative endogenous factors that may cause its possible
future failure. We suggest three specific features of K-pop that have been
pivotal in K-pop’s ascendance to its present global status: the contempora-
neity of the uncontemporary, the synchronized dancing to melodic music
(vis-à-vis beat music), and the multi-top dancing formation.
The Contemporaneity of the Uncontemporary
The status of Korea as a semi-peripheral country, a middle point in the

modern world system between the core (i.e., the world’s most developed
countries) and the periphery (i.e., newly developing and less developed
countries), gives Korea the advantage of being able to offer both highly
advanced and developing cultural elements to foreign visitors. For exam-
ple, some visitors from G7 countries still perceive Korea as nostalgic,
reminiscent of their immediate past, whereas some tourists from develop-

ing countries find it very modern, clean, and advanced (Oh 2009). This
particular state of being in the middle of the world system reflects the
“contemporaneity of the uncontemporary” (i.e., the coexistence of moder-
nity and pre-modernity at the same time).
The ability to simultaneously appear both modern and premodern
can translate into two completely opposite images to audiences in core
and peripheral countries. To core country audiences, Korean singers
appear innocent and pure compared to their own singers in Europe and
America. This image is bolstered by the typical racialized stereotyping of
Asians, without any real evidence as to whether singers from semi-periph-
eral countries really are innocent or not. Nusrat Durrani, general manager
at MTV World, commented on the charming personality of K-pop stars,
saying, “I think it reflects a certain innocence and naiveté missing from
the American pop-culture scene. This is pop idols as they used to be, with
a certain innocence about them that I think the audience misses.”5 Howev-
er, to peripheral audiences, who are mostly Asians, Korean singers do not
appear pure or innocent; rather, they look sophisticated, modern, and pol-
ished—much akin to the “Western” idols they have stereotyped or fash-
ioned themselves after (Cho 2005).
The managed use of male and female bodies is also very particular
among K-pop idols. K-pop producers deliberately choose tall performers,
both male and female, sometimes at least five to ten inches taller than
their J-pop idol counterparts, which can be clearly seen in a comparison
between K-pop’s Girls’ Generation and J-pop’s AKB48. By training Korean
idols who are taller and thinner than other competing Asian groups,
K-pop producers are establishing a new image of their singers as having
both stereotypically Asian facial features (such as Asian complexions with
black eyes and hair, etc.) and stereotypically European physiques (such as
tall heights). The creation of such a stereotyped images results once again
in opposite effects to core and peripheral audiences.
The combination of stereotypically “Korean faces” and “Western phy-
New York Daily News, October 23, 2011.

siques” plays an important role in marketing these artists to the global

music industry. The dualistic effects of such images on core and peripheral
audiences, respectively, are crucial. To many peripheral audiences, the mod-
ern and chic fashions of Korean idol stars have become culturally iconic,
which in turn has pressured young fans from developing countries to rush
to Korean fashion and cosmetic shops (Yin and Liew 2005). On the other
hand, the stereotypical Asian look represented by “cuteness” and “inno-
cence” has ignited the K-pop boom among young European followers.
Another example of the contemporaneity of the uncontemporary is
that Korean boy bands tend to look soft and “feminine” but their bodies
are extremely masculine. The following quotes from interviews conduct-
ed by Oh and Park (2012) with European K-pop fans indicate that Korean
boy bands act “feminine” on stage, while taking off their clothes to show
off their “six-pack abs.”
When I show other people video clips or pictures of K-pop stars (boy
band members), people say they look gay, but when they listen to
music, they all think music is good.
Western singers show sexy images but Koreans have a cuter image. . . .
It was interesting to see male entertainers acting charming on show
programs.
In Korean concerts, so many fancy performances and things girls would

love to see (such as taking off their shirts, flying over the air with special
equipment, and fireworks) happen. It is different from European con-
certs. K-pop singers also change clothes frequently during the show.
The combination mentioned in these interviews emphasizes the fact that

the K-pop boy band members have both male and feminine qualities,
which make them appeal to a broader audience.
Synchronized Dancing to Harmonized Melodic Music
The second K-pop particularity which seems to have helped facilitate the

global success of K-pop is its combination of synchronized group dancing

to harmonized melodic music. Boy and girl bands all over the world usu-
ally dance to beat music in a synchronized fashion. However, the prefer-
ence of harmonized melodies over beats in synchronized group dancing is
not common, as it is hard to dance to certain types of trendy beats, while
singing a song that incorporates complex harmonies. A common claim
regarding the reason K-pop bands are able to master synchronized group
dancing while singing complex harmonies is that these singers were
harshly disciplined and carefully controlled by their so-called “slave con-
tracts.”6 For example, Nusrat Durrani of MTV World pointed out that the
nine members of Girls’ Generation perform “every dance move in sync,
every [melodic] note precisely hit.”7 Durrani continues:
K-pop is very interesting because it comes from a place of great disci-

pline. A lot of these acts have been professionally trained for years and
years. A lot of K-pop acts actually have gone through very rigorous
training, gone through a lot of discipline and have worked extremely
hard. So the quality you see in K-pop is quite extraordinary.
Although the harsh training system and long-term contracts are indeed
crucial in training boy and girl bands so that they can master synchronized
group dancing to harmonized melodic music, it is also necessary to note
the motivation for enduring such training. The concept of cosmopolitan
striving, which we will explain in detail in the following section, must be
included in any study of K-pop training. In a nutshell, the concept of strict
“Asian” training is a stereotype held by American audiences and critics of
K-pop, although this still begs the question of why such a training system
(i.e., the obsessive learning of Western classic and other music, which
requires tremendous effort) works in Korea. In an interview with SM
Entertainment trainers, one interviewee explained that Korean trainees
6. “K-Pop’s Slave Contracts—A Glance at South Korea’s Entertainment Industry,” East Asia
Gazette, May 21, 2012, http://asia-gazette.com/book/export/html/146.
New York Daily News, October 23, 2011.

were more willing to endure the harsh training of synchronized dancing

while singing more successfully than their Chinese, Japanese, or European
trainee counterparts. Instead of analyzing this statement as a prejudiced
commentary, we argue that the cosmopolitan striving of Koreans is the
explanation for this particularity.
Multi-top Dancing Formation
Dance formations are another important element that distinguishes K-pop

from J-pop or European rock and pop music. Existing dancing formations
are usually designed to put the spotlight on one lead singer out of a group
of backup dancers (i.e., the one-top dancing formation). However, in
K-pop dancing formations, the one-top is replaced by multi-tops, as all
members take a turn at receiving the spotlight during the natural course of
singing and dancing in a song. In a Japanese TV show that carefully ana-
lyzed Girls’ Generation dance formations, experts explained that the
group’s multi-top dancing formation is startlingly different from the Japa-
nese one-top style where the group leader dances and sings in the middle
much more than any other, subordinate, members.8
In K-pop, on the other hand, all members in some sense compete
with each other to show their best in each performance. For example,
although Girls’ Generation has a main lead vocal, all nine singers get to
take center stage at least once or twice during the length of any given
song, exhibiting an equality in the importance of each member’s role in
the group. To the audience, the benefit of such a dance formation is that
fans get to watch their favorite idols taking center stage at least once or
twice per song. The reason why the multi-top dancing formation is more
effective in garnering popularity for a group is twofold: first, in this case,
fans tend not to get sick of the one lead vocal easily, since they are able to
find and enjoy more or less equally talented singers in one group. Second-
ly, instead of individual singers singing and dancing alone, they are able to
see several singers performing together at once. The analysis of the Japa-
8. “Shabekuri (Light Conversation) 007,” Nihon TV, May 23, 2012.

nese TV show suggests that fans prefer this more than one-top or single
singer shows because they can then easily develop audience affection with
the idol whom they particularly like, although who their favorite is may
change over the course of time. Having discussed three characteristics
specific to K-pop, we now turn to examine why these particularities are
possible only in K-pop, using the sociocultural concepts of time/space
hybridity, “red queen’s race,” and cosmopolitan striving.
Sociocultural Characteristics of Korea
Time/Space Hybridity
Compressed modernization allows the concomitant existence of the past

and the present, or tradition and modernity (Chang 2010). The social
phenomena that are typically associated with the past continue despite
rapid modernization and development, creating a chaotic situation of liv-
ing in two disparate time periods at once. Compressed modernization
therefore leads Koreans and Korean society to experience a combination
of elements from traditional, modern, and postmodern society. This can
be seen in both the non-material domain and the material environment
(Chang 2010). This phenomenon is not restricted to Korean society.
Indeed, many rapidly developing countries have experienced similar pat-
terns, although Japan and Korea have experienced the most advanced
form of hybridity in Asia (i.e., their postmodernity is the most advanced
among all Asian countries, whereas their traditional Confucian values are
also strongly held on to at the same time). This is different from Hong
Kong or Singapore, where traditional Confucian values have almost disap-
peared due to effects from British colonialism and other modernization
influences from overseas.
Koreans therefore tend to possess traditional, modern, and postmod-
ern values simultaneously, which can, at times, be contradictory to each
other. This phenomenon is called “time hybridity,” when one person (or
group) possesses a mixture of values and characteristics from different

time periods. This is different from the coexistence of different groups

with different values (e.g., India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, etc.).
The term “space hybridity” refers to the mixture of values and char-
acteristics from different regions, such as East Asian and European/North
American, in one individual or group. As mentioned above, colossal influ-
ences from Japan and the United States during compressed moderniza-
tion have made Koreans aggressively replicate American and Japanese
cultural values. In this way, Koreans acquired both East Asian and Euro-
pean/North American values.
“Red Queen’s Race” in Education
Like in other societies, education has been the most credible tool for up-
ward mobility in Korea. However, due to obsessive cosmopolitan striving,
Koreans have turned into education zealots over the years. The state also
played a crucial role in this obsession with education. Previous military
leaders, who ushered in strong developmental governments, grabbed politi-
cal power through military coups and suffered from low levels of political
legitimacy. In a fashion similar to that of Meiji Japan (Silberman 1993), the
Korean state had to use objective criteria for recruiting high-ranking offi-
cials to ameliorate its low legitimacy. Graduates from prestigious universi-
ties and those who passed national exams for high-ranking officials (gosi 考
試) became the main pool for the state bureaucracy. Gosi, subsequently,
made Koreans more dependent on education for their children’s future (Oh
2010). Figure 1 illustrates a drastic increase in university education in Korea
with the highest enrollment rate in tertiary education (Chang 2010, 43).
The education craze in Korea has the particular characteristics of the
“red queen’s race,” where everyone works hard but remains in the same
place. In the novel, Through the Looking Glass, Alice is constantly running
but remains in the same spot. Looking at Alice, the Red Queen says, “If
you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as
that” (Carroll 1872, 145). This is the situation in which most Korean stu-
dents find themselves. They work hard but their rank on the test remains
the same because everyone else is working hard. They know that they

(%)
100
90
80
70
South Korea
60
Japan
50
France
40 Sweden
30 USA
20
10
0
1965 1985 2005
Figure 1. Tertiary Education Enrollment Rate
Source: Adapted from Chang (2010, 43).
have to work much harder than their competitors to move up (J. Lee 2004).
Cosmopolitan Striving
Cosmopolitan striving is a metaphor for a collective motivation toward

upward mobility in a transitional society from Asian or developing econ-
omies to modern and Western economies (Park and Abelmann 2004). In
Korea, it is widely thought that learning English, for example, is a quick
way to become rich and powerful, as English is thought to provide one
with new cosmopolitan opportunities, such as studying in the United
States and the United Kingdom (Park and Abelmann 2004). Learning
about Western culture is also considered to be an important stepping
stone to advance one’s economic fate in society. Under this type of biased
Western-centric, promodern social rubric, cosmopolitan striving moti-
vates people to pursue what Oh (2009, 436) calls “forward learning.”
However, this line of thinking becomes problematic in that it suggests
that “modernization” equals “Westernization,” emphasizing the need to
learn English and “advanced” European culture and/or North American

culture. In Korea, the obsession reaches a degree that is not easily observed
in other non-European developing countries (Park and Abelmann 2004;
Oh 2010).
Park and Abelmann (2004) contend that the obsessive nature of Kore-
ans’ cosmopolitan striving is derived from Korean-style ultranationalism.
For example, if a Korean wins a grand prize in a renowned international
piano contest, he or she becomes a national hero. The accomplishment is
immediately featured in major Korean newspapers as a national, not an
individual, achievement. This is remarkably different from European soci-
eties, where becoming Sumo champions in Japan or becoming Chinese cal-
ligraphy masters will not make them national heroes in their home coun-
tries. In Korea, cosmopolitan striving (i.e., learning Western culture and
earning U.S. or U.K. titles for nationalism) is now expanding to golf and
K-pop. World-class Korean LPGA players and internationally popular
K-pop idols are the results of excessive cosmopolitan striving (Ho 2012).
Through her anthropological fieldwork, Ho (2012) carefully docu-
ments the cosmopolitan striving of Korean parents who invest time and
money in order to groom their children to become K-pop stars. She con-
tends that this investment has played a role in fueling Korea’s “Global
Dreams Factory” (Ho 2012, 485). It is said that more than one million
Korean adolescents want to become idols, banking on their parents’ finan-
cial and emotional support throughout the long period of hard training.
The number of private K-pop academies for training these young people
has increased ten times in less than three years.9 Cosmopolitan striving
drives these parents and young kids to accept the intense training based on
long-term contracts that force them to work more than 12 hours a day,
learning how to dance and sing, not to mention speaking English, Japa-
nese, and Chinese. Young teenagers everywhere in the world may dream of
becoming pop stars. However, it is unlikely that most of them would keep
training themselves in singing, dancing, foreign languages, acting, and
9. “Yeonseupsaeng 100 man ‘aidol gonghwaguk,’ gayogye hyeonjuso-neun?” (One Million

Trainees, Idol Republic, What is Current Address of K-Pop?), MBC’s Newsdesk, February
7, 2013.

other skills for more than ten years like Korean idol aspirants do, without
any certainty of becoming a singer. BoA, the first major case of success for
SM Entertainment, endured five to ten hours of training per day for three
years without any holidays before she debuted in Japan.10 In this sense, like
Ho (2012) argues, the K-pop academy is another evidence of cosmopoli-
tan striving by people who seek an alternative path to global success.
The obsessiveness of Koreans’ cosmopolitan striving is derived par-
tially from the country’s small domestic market, which does not provide
lots of opportunities for upward mobility. Such domestic restrictions,
among other factors, including rampant music piracy amid the domestic
music market, drove many K-pop idols (including idols-in-training) over-
seas. Indeed, the volume of Korean CD and DVD sales has decreased dra-
matically since 2000 (IFPI 2011b), the size of the Korean CD and DVD
market in 2011 was still less than three percent of the Japanese market, as
shown in Figure 2. The drastic downturn of the market in Korea eventu-
(million US$)
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
USA
Japan
Germany
England
France
Canada
Australia
Netherlands
Italy
Brazil
Spain
South Korea
Figure 2. Comparison of CD and DVD Market
Source: IFPI (2011a).
10. “K-Pop Stars Rise on Rigorous Training,” JoongAng Daily, June 13, 2011, http://korea-
joongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2937457.

ally pushed Korean entertainment companies to explore export markets

aggressively since 2000 (Jang, Kim, and Kim 2012).11
Influences of Sociocultural Factors on K-pop Specificities
As explained above, K-pop has three specificities: the contemporaneity of

the uncontemporary, the synchronized dancing to melodic music (vis-à-
vis beat music), and the multi-top dancing formation. This section will
explain how the aforementioned sociocultural factors (time/space hybrid-
ity, “red queen’s race” in education, and cosmopolitan striving) are related
to these three K-pop specificities.
Time/Space Hybridity and the Contemporaneity of the Uncontemporary
The time/space hybridity manifested by compressed modernity is pivotal

in the formation of the first feature of K-pop, the spontaneity of the
unspontaneous. Even though idol groups exhibit postmodern taste and
sensibilities in their music, the lyrics to their music cannot touch on cer-
tain topics such as violence, drugs, tobaccos, or sex, because public per-
formances are still governed by Confucian values and traditional govern-
ment regulatory agencies (Yim 2002). Korean pop songs have suffered
from government censorship for decades, ever since the birth of the mod-
ern Korean nation (C. Kim 2009).
Furthermore, Korean idols are still very dependent on parental com-
mitment and investment. This is why Ho (2012) highlights the fact that
idol groups develop Confucian filial loyalty to their parents and their cul-
tural and moral demands during the entire training period at private tal-
ent schools. She suggests that this is one of the reasons why Korean par-
11. Scholars emphasizing hybridization argue that increasing cultural exchange in East
Asia after the 1990s is the main cause for the exports of K-pop (Iwabuchi 2001; Chua
2004; Shim 2006). While the authors agree that increasing cultural exchanges certainly
played a positive role in K-pop’s global drive, we consider the situation a background
factor and less important than the direct push factor.

ents invest their money in their children’s training at such schools in spite
of high uncertainty. At the very least, their children develop a Confucian
sense of filial duty.
Finally, the talent schools and music producers like SM Entertain-
ment use authoritarian disciplinary methods to control and manage their
young trainees. Music producers and idol managers often force male sing-
ers and dancers to acquire a feminine look while maintaining muscular
body shapes. They also demand that female singers go through an extend-
ed period of dieting, and even force them to have cosmetic surgeries.12 All
of this is possible due to the traditional Confucian value of authoritarian
employer-employee relationships that are still rampant in Korea. In a nut-
shell, idol groups have modern and postmodern appearances but they are
still subject to Confucian managerial principles within their own produc-
tion teams.
“Red Queen’s Race” and Multi-top Dancing Formation
K-pop trainees receive hard training in the areas of singing, dancing, act-
ing, and even foreign languages for more than six hours every day (and
more than ten hours during weekends and holidays). In addition to sing-
ing, dancing, and language skills, etiquette and charm school as well as
self-improvement education is also included in the program. Trainers at
the entertainment companies strongly contend that their trainees try as
hard as students who are fiercely preparing for university entrance exams
and their success is not easily achieved. The reason this kind of Spar-
tan-like training is possible at Korean entertainment companies is that all
of the trainees are aware of the “red queen’s race” in society (i.e., all Kore-
ans are victims of hyper-competition). Just like students preparing for
university entrance exams, these would-be K-pop singers also feel the
pressure to practice harder than others in order to get selected as mem-
bers for new idol groups.
12. “The K-Pop Plastic Surgery Obsession,” Atlantic, May 24, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.
com/health/archive/2013/05/the-k-pop-plastic-surgery-obsession/276215/.

Trainees are tested every month. Tests include the “team mission
test,” the “individual test” (pronunciation, singing, and dancing), and the
“personality test.” Evaluation results, which are revealed to every student,
are detailed and ranked, in order to induce competition among the train-
ees. Trainees are asked to continue to get high scores in all evaluation
areas in order to earn the right to join a project team who is close to
debuting. If their scores are lower than those of the previous month, their
name will be moved to the open retest list and they must go through extra
weekly practices. In the worst-case scenario, they are pulled off the train-
ee track and demoted to the secondary group of trainees. It is clear that
the pressure to do well on such tests forces trainees to practice until late at
night in practice rooms or even on the rooftop of the training building.
The multi-top dancing formation of K-pop is an extension of the
“red queen’s race.” Taking center stage at least once or twice in rotation
during a song, idol group members not only have a chance to show their
talents to their fans, but also to compete with other members in front of
the audience. The multi-top formation basically invalidates the idea of
one permanent lead singer per idol group, as all members can show off
their talents in front of the audience as a temporary leader until they are
replaced by another in a matter of seconds. Essentially, this system requires
not just one star per team, but that all team members must be potential
stars. The managerial reason for the multi-top formation is to increase
enjoyment for fans, over that of a solo show. However, it is strenuous for
each member of the same band and it also unnecessarily encourages com-
petition among team members for both the leader position and fans’
attention and support. This system is possible only when cosmopolitan
striving is obsessive like in Korea and the “red queen’s race” is necessary
due to small domestic markets.
Cosmopolitan Striving and Synchronized Dancing to Melodic Music
As previously explained, synchronized dancing by a large group of per-

formers who concomitantly sing melodic music is very difficult to learn
and master, because high levels of ability in both dancing and singing are

required. Although many idol groups in different countries mimic syn-

chronized dancing, they usually dance to beat music, most notably hip-
hop and break dancing music, which is typically deemed as easier to mas-
ter than dancing to and singing melodic music.13 The secret to synchro-
nized dancing is merely the relentless training of would-be idols over a
long period of time. Without cosmopolitan striving, continuous training
over such long periods of time would simply not be possible, especially
when there are no professional teachers available. Golf practice can be
taken as an example. According to Seri Park and K. J. Choi, who won the
U.S. LPGA and PGA titles respectively, their secret to success during the
early period of training was self-imposed training day and night.14 This
solitary striving was possible because they had a cosmopolitan dream of
succeeding in the PGA world.
In an interview with SM Entertainment managers,15 we found that
they were surprised to see that only Korean students could endure the
relentless dose of training without complaint, unlike SM’s Chinese, Japa-
nese, or European students. SM managers thought the reason was genetic,
particular to Korean people. However, we contend that it was due to the
cosmopolitan striving that was imposed upon them by their parents, the
managers themselves, and Korean society as a whole, which considers cos-
mopolitan striving as a nationalist endeavor (Park and Abelmann 2004).
Reports of the abuse and beating of trainees by managers are periodi-
cally reported in Korean newspapers (East Asia Gazette, May 21, 2012).
Managers argue that the hazing and authoritarian control of pupils is nec-
essary in order to teach young kids how to sing and dance in a perfectly
synchronized fashion, just like the synchronized military drills that
involve lots of hazing and physical abuse in Korea. Such abuse is more vis-
ible in Korea than in other Asian countries because cosmopolitan striving
13. STV, “Katie Price: ‘Singing and Dancing at Same Time is Hard,’” http://entertainment.stv.
tv/tv/188592-katie-price-singing-and-dancing-at-same-time-is-hard/.
14. Mick Elliott, “Legends at Home: Se Ri Pak,” LPGA website, http://www.lpga.com/golf/
news/2012/10/pak-legends-feature.aspx.
15. The interview was conducted with a manager in charge of A&R and Production Team
at SM Entertainment on December 21, 2012.

is more acute in Korea, where domestic opportunities for upward mobili-

ty are few and far between, than in Japan, China, or Indonesia, for exam-
ple. Consequently, relentless training, cosmopolitan striving, and the
small domestic market all contribute to the fact that only Korean idol
groups in Asia could master the perfect synchronization of group dancing
with melodic singing.
We have thus far discussed the impact of time/space hybridity, the
“red queen’s race,” and cosmopolitan striving on the three K-pop specific-
ities, namely, the contemporaneity or the uncontemporary, the multi-top
dancing formation, and synchronized dancing to melodic music. Figure 3
summarizes the dynamics of the aforementioned sociocultural factors.
Sociocultural Characteristics Features of K-pop
• Time/space hybridity • Contemporaneity of the

• Red queen’s race in education uncontemporary
• Cosmopolitan striving • Multi-top dancing formation
• Synchronized dancing to melodic
music
Figure 3. Framework of K-pop Sociocultural Dynamics
Conclusion
The success of K-pop in the global music market has aroused scholarly
interest from various perspectives and disciplines. K-pop is indeed one of
the most commonly searched keywords on YouTube. K-Pop videos were
viewed a total of 2.3 billion times in 2011.16 The multidisciplinary interest
in K-pop reflects the wealth of factors that could explain its revolutionary
success on a global scale. These diverse factors and causes can roughly be
divided into two categories: exogenous and endogenous. For example, it is
16. “K-pop yutubeu dongyeongsang jangnyeon 235 gaeguk 23 eok beon” (K-pop Videos
Viewed by 2.3 Billion Times in 235 Countries), JoongAng Daily, January 2, 2012.

obvious that the changing communication industry, especially the devel-

opment of SNS, played a pivotal role in K-pop’s spread to the world. The
changing manufacturing structure of the music industry has also contrib-
uted to this new global phenomenon. These examples constitute import-
ant exogenous factors in K-pop’s success.
Given the rich depository of studies on the exogenous factors of K-
pop’s success, this article attempted to delve into endogenous factors that
contributed to K-pop’s success. We wanted to find out whether sociocultural
features, particular to Korea, had strong correlations with K-pop specifici-
ties, which have made the genre successful. The rationale behind this
research design was derived from our scholarly desire to find the psycholog-
ical (i.e., intrinsic) basis of motivation, which is different from the material
(i.e., extrinsic) basis of motivation, for Korean creativeness and its commer-
cialization. In so doing, we posited that endogenous factors were critical in
the development of K-pop and can be traced back to Korean-style cosmo-
politan striving along with time/space hybridity and the “red queen’s race.”
Although it is important to be cautious of gross generalizations, our
research found that three specific features define the endogenous character-
istics of K-pop: the contemporaneity of the uncontemporary, synchronized
dancing to melodic music, and the multi-top dancing formation. We argued
that these three K-pop specificities are relevant to time/space hybridity, the
“red queen’s race,” and cosmopolitan striving that has been obsessively pur-
sued by many Koreans, fueled by their ultranationalistic predilections to-
ward success overseas. This analysis, however, is based on a sociostructur-
al explanation using macro-level data. For further research, individu-
al-level investigations regarding the motives and aspirations of idol groups
and entertainment companies should be conducted.

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Envisaging The Sociocultural Dynamics of K-Pop:: Time/Space Hybridity, Red Queen's Race, and Cosmopolitan Striving

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Korea Journal, vol. 53, no. 4 (winter 2013): 83-106.

© Korean National Commission for UNESCO, 2013

Envisaging the Sociocultural Dynamics

Wonho JANG and Youngsun KIM

Keywords: K-Pop, time/space hybridity, cosmopolitan striving, red queen’s race

5(Wonho JANG).indd 83 13. 12. 16. 오후 7:07

SM Entertainment,1 the largest K-pop music producer and trainer, origi-

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why Korean pop music, not Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, or Thai, is

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ment is that these cultural specificities in Korea partially, if not fully,

K-pop Music and Idol Groups

Table 1 shows a partial chronology of K-pop’s globalization drive from

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Table 1. Chronology of K-pop's Expansion from Asia to the World

Nation Date Significant Events

The first HOT (SM Entertainment) concert is held at

Japan May 2001 BOA (SM Entertainment) debuts in Japan.

Japan Apr. 2005 TVXQ (SM Entertainment) debuts in Japan.

Rain concert is held at Madison Square Garden in

Wonder Girls (JYP Entertainment) performs as an

Girls’ Generation (SM Entertainment) and KARA

SM Entertainment singers perform in Seoul, Tokyo,

Super Junior ranks first for a record length of time

Spain Oct. 2011 JYJ concert is held in Barcelona.

“K-pop music festival” is held in Sydney (in front of

Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is registered in the Guinness

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Asia, whereas previous K-pop music had region- or country-specific fans.

The Contemporaneity of the Uncontemporary

The status of Korea as a semi-peripheral country, a middle point in the

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siques” plays an important role in marketing these artists to the global

In Korean concerts, so many fancy performances and things girls would

The combination mentioned in these interviews emphasizes the fact that

Synchronized Dancing to Harmonized Melodic Music

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global success of K-pop is its combination of synchronized group dancing

K-pop is very interesting because it comes from a place of great disci-

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were more willing to endure the harsh training of synchronized dancing

Multi-top Dancing Formation

Dance formations are another important element that distinguishes K-pop

8. “Shabekuri (Light Conversation) 007,” Nihon TV, May 23, 2012.

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Sociocultural Characteristics of Korea

Compressed modernization allows the concomitant existence of the past

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time periods. This is different from the coexistence of different groups

“Red Queen’s Race” in Education

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Figure 1. Tertiary Education Enrollment Rate

Source: Adapted from Chang (2010, 43).

Cosmopolitan striving is a metaphor for a collective motivation toward

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9. “Yeonseupsaeng 100 man ‘aidol gonghwaguk,’ gayogye hyeonjuso-neun?” (One Million

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Figure 2. Comparison of CD and DVD Market

Source: IFPI (2011a).

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ally pushed Korean entertainment companies to explore export markets

Influences of Sociocultural Factors on K-pop Specificities